George R.R. Martin: "Please, Let This Wretched Year Come To An End."
12/28/2016 06:10 pm EST
George RR Martin has had just about enough of 2016.
The author of A Game of Thrones made a post on his "Not a Blog" yesterday to note the passing of two more genre fiction luminaries, starting "Death, death, and more death... this year just keeps getting worse and worse."
Martin admitted that he had little to add to the discussion of Carrie Fisher, only writing, "She was way too young. A bright, beautiful, talented actress, and a strong, witty, outspoken woman. Princess Leia will live as long as STAR WARS does... probably forever..."
He did have a bit more to say about Richard Adams, the author of Watership Down, which Martin considers to be an underappreciated classic of the fantasy genre:
"And the world lost one of its great fantasists today as well: Richard Adams, the author of WATERSHIP DOWN. Gardner Dozois ranks WATERSHIP DOWN as one of the three great fantasy novels of the twentienth century, right up there with LORD OF THE RINGS and THE ONCE AND FUTURE KING, and I agree. A truly amazing book... and one that somehow always seems to get forgotten when fans discuss the great fantasies. Maybe because of the talking rabbits? No idea...
Adams was a wonderful writer. Yes, WATERSHIP DOWN was his masterpiece, but it was by no means his only great book. He wrote two terrific epic fantasies with human characters, SHARDIK and MAIA, both of which I think are criminally underrated, as well as an erotic ghost story, THE GIRL ON A SWING. His other "animal book," THE PLAGUE DOGS, also has some wonderful sections... though it is such a dark, depressing, angry, gut-punch of a novel that I can't say I 'enjoyed' it.
Adams was not 'one of us,' in the sense that he was never a convention-goer or part of our genre fantasy community, which may be why he was never honored with a life achievement award by the World Fantasy Convention. Nonetheless, he deserved one. I've been suggesting him for that honor for at least twenty years... in part because I wanted to meet him. Now I never will. That's sad (though not as sad as PLAGUE DOGS)."
Martin closed with a feeling that seems to be widespread as 2016 draws to a close: "Please, let this wretched year come to an end."
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